Saving the Constitution from Lawyers

This page intentionally left blank SAVING THE CONSTITUTION FROM LAWYERS This book is a sweeping indictment of the legal profession when it enters the realm of constitutional interpretation. The adversarial, advocacy-based American legal system is well-suited to American justice, where one-sided arguments collide to produce a just outcome. But when applied to constitutional theorizing, the result is selective analysis, overheated rhetoric, distorted facts, and overstated conclusions. Such wayward theorizing finds its way into print in the nation’s more than six hundred law journals – professional publi- cations run by law students, not faculty or other professionals, and in which peer review is almost never used to evaluate worthiness. The consequences of this system are examined through three timely cases: the presidential veto, the “unitary theory” of the president’s commander-in-chief power, and the Second Amendment’s “right to bear arms.” In each case, law reviews were the breeding ground for defective theories that won false legitimacy and political currency. This book concludes with recommendations for reform. Robert J. Spitzer is Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York, College at Cortland. His books include The Presidency and Public Policy, The Right to Life Movement and Third Party Politics, The Presidential Veto, The Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitu- tion, President and Congress, Media and Public Policy, The Politics of Gun Control, Politics and Constitutionalism, The Right to Bear Arms, Essentials of American Politics, and The Presidency and the Constitution. Saving the Constitution from Lawyers ......HOW LEGAL TRAINING AND LAW REVIEWS DISTORT CONSTITUTIONAL MEANING Robert J. Spitzer State University of New York, College at Cortland CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521896962 © Robert J. Spitzer 2008 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2008 ISBN-13 978-0-511-47883-3 eBook (EBL) ISBN-13 978-0-521-89696-2 hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-72172-1 paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. To Jinny Spitzer and Tess Spitzer, the two most brilliant and beautiful women I know Contents Acknowledgments ..............................page ix Introduction .......................................1 1 The Logic, and Illogic, of Law .........................9 Lawyers as Liars? 11 Thinking Like a Lawyer 14 The Adversary System, Advocacy, and Truth 17 Lawyering versus Scholarship 22 Social Sciences and the Rules of Inquiry 25 Conclusion 31 2 The Law Journal Breeding Ground .....................33 History 35 Students in Charge? 38 A Scholarly Enterprise? 41 How the System Works 44 Criticisms 46 Professional Peer Review: The Academic Gold Standard 49 The Problems with Student Control 53 Length, Redundancy, and Footnotes 56 Conclusion 58 3 The Inherent Item Veto .............................60 Colonial Precedents 63 Defining the Veto 69 vii viii .......................................CONTENTS What the Founders Understood about the Veto 72 The Veto as a “Revisionary” Power 81 An Eviscerated Veto? 84 Conclusion: Rescuing Constitutional Interpretation 85 4 The Unitary Executive and the Commander-in-Chief Power ...........................................90 The Unitary Executive Theory: Article II on Steroids 92 The Constitutional Commander-in-Chief 99 The Commander-in-Chief According to Yoo 103 From Law Journal to Law 105 The Bush Commander-in-Chief 108 Distorting the Courts 109 What Hamilton Says 111 Other Cases 114 A Political Document or a Legal One? 121 Conclusion: Reinventing the Commander-in-Chief 125 5 The Second Amendent .............................129 The Meaning of the Second Amendment 131 Supreme Court Rulings 136 Other Court Rulings 141 The “Individualist” Critique 145 The “Right of Revolution” 148 Collateral Claims and the Research Record 153 Seeking Shelter under the Fourteenth Amendment 160 Public Policy Consequences 164 Interest-Group Involvement 172 Conclusion 175 6 Conclusion ......................................177 Reform 179 Law Reviews Will Still Matter 186 About the Author .................................187 Index ...........................................189 Acknowledgments As with any endeavor such as this, I owe a debt of gratitude to many people. In particular, I thank Seth Asumah, Erik Bitterbaum, Deb Dintino, Michael Genovese, Nancy Kassop, Mary McGuire, and Mark Prus. David Latimer, John Siliciano, and David Wippman read key portions of the manuscript and provided genuinely incisive and immensely helpful suggestions. It has been a pleasure to work with Cambridge University Press editor John Berger, as well as with Marcus Hinds and Maggie Meitzler. I also thank the many unnamed people with whom I have discussed the ideas that comprise this book over the space of many years, as well as the anonymous readers who offered very important and beneficial recommendations and suggestions. In addition, I gratefully and happily acknowledge Mellissa and Aaron; Shannon, Scott, Alexis, and Luke; Gary, Gail, Skye, and Jinny; and Joe and Dorothy Duncan, who understand and practice not only citizenship but also partisanship in the best sense. Most of all, I acknowledge my deepest love for and gratitude to my wife, Teresa, for the nearly inexpressible joy she brings to my life every single day. Take it from me, I’m one lucky guy. Although unrelated to the subject matter of this book, I also acknowledge my good friends in the Cortland musical theater community, includ- ing Kevin and Cindy Halpin, Tom and Cathy Hischak, and David Neal. I completed this project during a sabbatical that allowed me to do this work during the day, and sing and dance at night. Although there’s no chance whatsoever that I’ll be giving up my day job, it’s hard to put into words the special kind of joy that comes only from musical theater. So I won’t try. ix .......Introduction A few years ago, I read a lengthy article in a prominent law journal about the constitutional power to declare war. The article ably presented oppos- ing views regarding the enduring debate between those who argue for congressional pre-eminence over war-related decisions and those who believe that the president possesses great war-making discretion. But, the author offered a startling categorical finding that he said “all scholars have missed”: namely, that “the Founders denied the President a veto over congressional decisions to wage war....”1 This finding was, in turn, offered by the author as decisive support for greater congressional power over war-related decisions. “Wow,” I thought. Had the author uncovered a previously unknown letter by the likes of James Madison, for example, stating in unambiguous terms that declarations of war could not be vetoed by the president? Such a finding would be of major historical and constitutional significance. And, was it true that all scholars had missed this finding? On its face, such a claim would seem to contradict a straight read- ing of the Constitution. According to Article I, sec. 7, “Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the United States” for signature or veto. The succeeding paragraph in sec. 7 further explains that “Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary...shall 1 William Michael Treanor, “Fame, the Founding, and the Power to Declare War,” Cornell Law Review 82(May 1997): 700. 1 2 .....................................INTRODUCTION be presented to the President of the United States....” Passage of bills requires a simple majority vote in both houses. If the president chooses to veto, Congress may override the veto by a two-thirds vote.2 The only exceptions are measures that require a two-thirds vote on initial passage: proposed constitutional amendments and treaties (which only require approval from the Senate). It has long been understood that presidents may not obstruct these measures passed by super-majorities. Yet, a declaration of war requires only a simple majority vote of both houses, sug- gesting that presidents could, indeed, veto a declaration of war (although it has never occurred in the five times war has been declared in American history).3 As I read the balance of the article, I discovered that the author had not, in fact, uncovered any new historical evidence. His emphatic and categorical assertion that the Constitution’s founders expressly denied the president a veto over declarations of war was not based on any newly discovered evidence but rather on familiar quotations and other related sources from the country’s early history in which early presidents, constitutional founders, and others referenced the sentiment that Congress alone

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